Upcoming Farenthold Endowed Lecture Events

The Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice is pleased to announce The Frances Tarlton “Sissy” Farenthold Endowed Lecture Series in Peace, Social Justice and Human Rights, which will honor Sissy for her relentless pursuit of social justice. We are also delighted that Houston’s Rothko Chapel, where Sissy served as chair of the board for many years, will host the lecture at the Chapel in alternating years.

In line with Sissy’s own history of exposing and responding to injustices and inequality as both a public servant and citizen, the lecture series will bring to Austin and Houston internationally renowned scholars, activists and politicians who will inspire their audiences to think and act creatively to respond to some of the greatest challenges of the 21st century.

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  1. The eighth annual Sissy Farenthold Lecture will feature acclaimed scholar of race, gender and the law, Dorothy Roberts, who will discuss the rising entanglement of pregnancy criminalization and family policing and the need for reproductive justice and abolitionist approaches to contest it.

Previous Farenthold Endowed Lecture Events

  1. Speaker:
    The seventh annual Frances Tarlton “Sissy” Farenthold Endowed Lecture Series in Peace, Social Justice and Human Rights was delivered by author-activist Arundhati Roy.

  2. Speaker:
    • New York Times Op-Ed Columnist, Author of "Fire Shut Up in My Bones"
    The Rothko Chapel and the Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice's 6th annual Frances Tarlton “Sissy” Farenthold Endowed Lecture in Peace, Social Justice and Human Rights featured journalist, author, and political analyst Charles Blow.

  3. Speaker:
    • Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences, American Studies; Director of the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York
    The Rapoport Center and the Rothko Chapel are pleased to announce that Ruth Wilson Gilmore will headline the fifth annual Frances Tarlton “Sissy” Farenthold Endowed Lecture in Peace, Social Justice and Human Rights.

  4. Speaker:
    The Rapoport Center and the Rothko Chapel are pleased to announce that Puerto Rican attorney and climate justice activist Elizabeth Yeampierre will headline the fourth Frances Tarlton “Sissy” Farenthold Endowed Lecture in Peace, Social Justice and Human Rights.

  5. Speaker:
    • National Domestic Workers Alliance, Caring Across Generations
    The Rapoport Center and the Rothko Chapel are pleased to announce that labor organizer, author, and activist Ai-jen Poo will headline the third Frances Tarlton “Sissy” Farenthold Endowed Lecture in Peace, Social Justice and Human Rights.

  6. Speaker:
    The 2nd Annual Sissy Farenthold Endowed Lecture explored the intersection of the arts and human rights, and the need for artists and non-artists alike to engage more fully with the power of artistic expression in the instigation of social change. Mr. Walker was in conversation with bestselling author, curator, and professor Sarah Lewis.

  7. Speaker:
    • Chancellor’s Professor of English and Journalism, UC Berkeley and James Clarke Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs and Humanities, Bard College
    Inaugural Frances Tarlton “Sissy” Farenthold Endowed Lecture in Peace, Social Justice and Human Rights.

Event Types